Week 3

One day I'll come up with new titles for my blogs. Right now, I think it's appropriate to address my life in "baby stages" since I do feel, in many ways, that I'm starting all over again :) At one point, at like week 56 or 156 (God willing!) the blog might get a little ridiculous. And you might stop reading ;) So hopefully soon I'll be inspired with more creative titles.

What to tell you this week? This was an exciting week in some ways. The postulants who are now moving up to novitiate came back from their vacations (they were on vacation when we entered) and we got to spend some time with them as they packed up to move to Boston to begin their novitiate. It was nice to have some other persons in the house :) And it was great to spend time in prayer with them.

Having them around did make our schedule a little hectic, as Sr. Carmen had to minister to all 6 of us! So we didn't have a "normal" schedule this week.

We visited our Lady of the Snow Shrine on Labor Day which was beautiful. It is a really great place to pray with many different devotions to our Lady and Christ displayed in art and places of prayer. It's run by Oblates of...something of Mary....I forget! But they seem really cool. They have all kinds of missions, it seems. They even had a cultural festival this weekend, which we decided to go back for this past Sat. I'm glad we did! There were many tables set up and with Sr. Carmen's family being from El Salvador, Alina's family from Cuba, and mine from Poland- our 'second generation'-al beings were happy to see our cultures represented and we feel a fondness for cultures in general.

Now things seem to be falling (no pun intended, though today is a beautiful fall day and I thank the Lord for fall!!! It just is the perfect balance of sun and cool- like we are able to actually enjoy the sun's rays. I love balance ;) into more of a schedule. We've had more classes which a lot of people seem to ask about, so let me now give you a taste of some things we've been discussing and will learn about:

We've read some articles on our "ontological being" to help us learn more about who we are in Christ, who He's called us to be uniquely. This is in hopes of us better discerning the passions and desires He's placed in our hearts. Who He's called us to be. It's been uber-helpful.

We've also started to learn more about the Pauline Family- the orders Blessed James Alberione started- and our founder. We've looked at some of his writings on meditation and forms of prayer for Daughters of St. Paul.

And yesterday we started to learn more about the apostolate, which is mainly lived out in our Book Centers. Here is some interesting info about Alberione's vision for the Daughters and our Centers:

The centers are not stores. They are places of mission. They are meant to be a place of service- to those faithful to the Church and those seeking Christ. We don't see the patrons as customers but as cooperators in our mission. They serve us just as much as we might try to serve them.

The aim is not profit, but evangelization and bringing each other closer to Christ. We offer a type of Eucharist to each other because we are offering Christ to each other and we are feeding off of Christ in His Word that we distribute.

It's really all very beautiful and every time I'm in class (which, i should say are very informal. It's just the 4 of us- Emily, Alina, Sr. Carmen, and i sitting around a table) I do get excited about the mission and Alberione's vision. It re-affirms that this is a good fit and perhaps where Christ wants me to use my gifts.

So that's class right now. Eventually we are taking formal classes at Paul VI Institute- a think a branch of the seminary open to women and lay people- on Sacraments and Liturgy.

Thank you for reading and for your prayers! I will continue to update you. Thank you for your interest!!! Know that Jesus is ALIVE in His Church, Word, and Eucharist and is doing great things in all of us!!!

Peace,
Julia